The Sun's Son
by ShadyDreamcatcher
Summary: As realization starts to set in, James tries to come to grips with what now lies before him and what he should do.
1. A Friend's Need

**The Sun's Son**

**I do not own Superman, Batman, Supergirl or any of the other characters of the DC comics. Only James.**

**'Thoughts'**

**"Speech"**

**Introduction**

_As the heroes finally arrived to survey the scene, it was clear that the damage done was staggering, both in intensity and in sheer scale of the area claimed for the fight. Waiting for them was one lone moving figure cradling one of the two combatants in her lap, sobbing. Supergirl sat there cradling the man who's blue spandex costume was barely recognizable, torn and bloody as it was._

_It was a major loss for all of them, today they all lost a comrade, and a dear friend. He who did so much more than he was willing to admit to himself, and always so selflessly too._

_Already Batman was putting the hard question forward…_

_"So. How do we tell his family that he's gone? And for another, Who do we send?"_

_"I will… I was the closest to him and I'm like one of the family as it is" responded Supergirl in very pained words. Then as if seeing how it would go before hand, and the pain involved, Supergirl began to cry once more._

_"Why does it always happen to these ones? It's not fair!" The Flash blurted out almost as if thinking out loud._

_"I mean, will he even be missed? Will anyone even care he's gone? With how everything's been lately, the general view of us is kinda been sorely lacking. He deserves that much at least. I mean with all he's done for them." First filled with passion, the Flash ended with a dishearten mumble as he drops to his knees with the burden of the events and the moral questions and consequences ._

_"He will be missed! He will be remembered! His deeds will be remembered and told in Themescyra for ages to come, where he was respected most. He was a great man, a perfect example to my sisters that men can hold great promise." Wonder Woman declared._

_"And what of his hometown? His family and friends? Don't they deserve to know what he accomplished today? What he did? WHO he was? He did his duty always as he saw it and they should know of it, so they can be proud of him… after all his secret identity prevented them from knowing that." demanded Captain Atom._

_"That's the problem with secret identities isn't it? They can never know what he's done, or who he was… its his last bit of protection for them. It's the blessing and curse we all must bear." and like that… all remained silent as they searched the rubble for anything and carried off both bodies before the media arrived. All that was left was one lone figure watching the sun fall below the horizon…_

_"Nothing will ever be the same again…" barely audible to even super hearing the blonde figure disappeared with the setting sun._

_"Nothing will ever be the same again…"_

**Chapter One: A Friend's Need**

"So what's going on back home Kaylee?" asked James over the phone as he finished packing up his gear for the next move to his next command.

"Oh nothing out of the ordinary, as usual." Kaylee replied into the speaker phone as she prepared herself some dinner.

"Well that's not surprising, nothing ever goes on back home. Well hopefully I can get some of you guys to do something while I'm home." the sarcasm apparent in his voice. James had plans to at least have a few good nights with his friends while he was home for the short duration he had for leave.

"Ohh? And what did you have in mind?" inquired Kaylee, clearly interested.

"Well I was thinking about that one movie that just came out. You know? That one coming out on Monday. I was thinking on rounding everyone up and making a night of it." James began, already visualizing the possibilities. Sadly the possibilities were quite limited since there really wasn't much to do back home. But then being stuck living on the ship for a few months made just about any recreational activity look like a wonderful idea and James was starting to get desperate for some fun.

"Ohh… that's it?" Kaylee clearly disappointed in her friend's meager plan and limited idea of fun. Plus Kaylee wasn't really interested in the movie James had in mind.

"Well, I figured we could catch that other movie that came out on Saturday, I forget what its call, as well. Then of course grab a bite to eat at everyone's choice place and maybe roam the mall a bit. But then we could always do a little improvisation on the plans… I mean I'm game for just about anything right now." Sensing Kaylee's disappointment in his choice of movies or just the simplicity of his plans James decided an emergency elaboration was necessary for the plans to come through.

"Well that sounds pretty good, I don't have any plans anyway so count me in." Kaylee responded clearly happy with the new addition to the movies selection.

Relieved that he could guarantee Kaylee's participation in the night since it had always rested on his shoulders to instigate any kind of group night out with the gang, but things never held without Kaylee's assistance. So in many ways James found he needed her to ensure things got done right, kind of like his own good luck charm, as well as the fact that they've been friends for what seems like forever and she knew him well enough that she could convince him anything was a good idea. Though he'd be hesitant to tell her that she had so much control of him. Then again he knew all the right buttons to press to unbalance her into anything he needed from her with only a little prodding. So it evened things out a bit in the end. They had just been friends for too long to not be unable to know each other so well.

Kaylee was just finishing up cooking dinner for herself when she started to getting her plate ready when she heard a noise in the back yard so she went to take a look, after all her family had been having problems with bears getting into the garbage lately and luckily it took little to chase them away, just flip on the outside lights and bang a pan from the 2nd floor balcony. What she found was not bears, but three guys in black wool attire with there faces covered.

"Ohh My God! Burglars are coming to the house! Three of them! They're just past the fence." screamed Kaylee into the phone.

"Quick Kay! Call 911 and tell them what's happening and lock as many doors as fast as you can, then hide. I'll do what I can." James was worried, Kaylee was living in the back woods area like him and she was alone. Another thought crept into his head and it horrified him to no end… Kaylee was a very pretty girl at 19 years and was all alone with three (probably male) burglars. The images dancing in his head swirled through his head that they drove out all conscious thought in his head. He had to do something, he had to save her from that possibility, the police just wouldn't get there quick enough.

So James began to run as fast as he could. He clearly wasn't thinking clearly since he was like several states away and a few time zones and running is the last means to travel to take… unfortunately running was all he had at the moment. So he ran.

Now James had always been pretty fast, being as to the fact that he was always running and working out… though as of late (the last month) he seemed to be making unusually large gains in his running time and his lifting, the greatest gains seemed to be in his running. But this knowledge was the last thing on his mind, in his delirium James found himself on the outside of the base he was stationed at. Only partially amazed he continued running. It was no time at all before he found himself running along the highway in the general direction towards home…he as running alongside the cars and many people were pointing at him. It was at that point that he realized he was still in his dress uniform and passengers were pointing at him in amazement. It was at this moment he realized what was happening, he was running as fast as a car and he was slowly getting faster… but even at that speed it was painfully obvious that he wouldn't make it in time to help Kaylee. So he continued to push himself as hard as he could, harder and harder, to push his seemingly ever increasing limits. He had to make it in time to be able to do something.

It wasn't very long that James was moving like a blur down the highways and interstates, weaving in and out of traffic, that he found that he had no idea where he was going. All the speed he was acquiring would do nothing if he found himself going in the wrong direction. He luckily found himself in Atlanta and snatched a road atlas off a street corner and began navigating through the most straight paths he could find to home.

Sadly his speed didn't go unnoticed though.

* * *

"Sir, we are picking up an extremely fast signature moving northwest near the Eastern coast. Very fast sir, and getting faster." said a man at a computer console. 

"Really? Is it the Flash? Superman?" asked an imposing figure in black suit.

"Doesn't look like it sir. Too slow to be either of them by a long shot, sir. Though it appears to be at ground level." console man.

"So an unidentified meta-human huh? Any idea what class we're talking about here? A visual maybe?" Inquired the man in black.

"Sorry sir, but he's moving too fast to get a clear image of him with the video monitoring satellites we currently have not already tasked. As to his class, it is hard to tell right now but I would assume no greater than a Class Delta meta-human, with his speed. Though he could be a Gamma Class for all we know." stated the console man.

"Urrgghh! Lets hope not. All we need right now is to try and deal with another Gamma Class and keep it from the media. This 'target' needs to be dealt with quickly." said the man in black, as if stating a death sentence. Though given the situation he probably did, in effect.

"Yes Sir, I would recommend we send one of our Alpha Class agents to handle it, just to be safe sir. Given the lack of intel on the 'target' see if we can enlist him, after all we could always use another, whether by force or not, or to ensure the target can be eliminated." console man.

"Heavens No! An Alpha would be overkill. A Charley Class agent should be more than enough to in the least, assess the situation." said the black suited man with as if a bad taste in his mouth.

"Yes sir, sending tracker cams as well to follow and monitor the 'target' , and to gather better information on the 'target'. Will we be sending agent C-004, Travis Ledaman 'Brute Frost', sir?" asked console man.

"Why yes. He'll do nicely. He's always been very effective in eliminating targets quickly, though he's never been good at the recruiting part." grinned the Black suited man.

"Yes sir, very reliable in that part. I'll dispatch him right away, he should be able to intercept the target quickly enough." console man.

"Yes, make it so." black suited man as he turns to leave.

"Keep me posted if anything unusual happens, now I have a meeting to attend to with the higher ups, so you know how to get a hold of me."

"Yes sir, I do."

* * *

"Heh Heh Heh, finally another job. I was getting pretty bored. Lets hope that this one puts up more sport than the last." Brute Frost whispers with a grin of pure pleasure on his face.

* * *

And just like that James found himself home, and just a few moments from finding Kaylee. He prayed that he would make it in time. If he didn't, then there would be nothing in that house worth enough to be stolen for what he would do to them.

* * *

"So pretty girl, won't you stay and play with us?" cackled the tallest of the burglars. 

Kaylee had evaded the burglars throughout the house as long as she could but now she was forced to flee the house altogether for the nearest neighbor, she presently was running down her long driveway with the burglars on her heels.

"No!" she screamed. " Take what you want. Just leave me alone, the police are already on the way."

"Awww… Now why'd you have to go and do that? We were just going to play a few games and have some fun. Why'd you have to go and get those party wreckers involved. We are sorely disappointed in you girl." said the widest of the three burglars.

"Well prepare to be in for more disappointment, guys. Cause I can't let that happen."

Just then Kaylee saw James standing at the end of her driveway in one of his uniforms, though he looked a bit travel stained, he stood there firm and obviously very peeved. A look not many back home could or would visualize as being on his face. After all, James was one of the friendliest and lightest humored guys around, he just never seemed even ticked off as far as she could remember. She was both relieved and worried about his presence here. It was comforting to have someone here to protect her, but James was a Sailor, not a Marine or Soldier, and he was never one of the biggest or most imposing guys around. But he was there just the same.

"Kaylee, get to a neighbor's place and get help, after all these guys are probably armed." James replied in an almost completely monotone voice.

Kaylee nodded her head, but seemed planted to her spot. 'James was definitely acting very unusual.' and leaving him didn't seem to be an option in her head. It never occurred to her how he happened to be there after only forty minutes when she was talking to him on the phone several states away.

'O.K. this is going to be tricky, if not ugly, even if they aren't armed. Which they probably are knowing my luck…Damn why won't Kaylee leave to safety I don't want her to see this if this goes bad on my part, which it looks like it will with three guys here, two of which aren't exactly small.'

Putting on a smug grin. "I think its time for you guys to get out of here while you still can."

"What with only a little guy like you standing there to what? Stop us? Funny joke but I'm going to say no." Laughed the tallest guy.

'Well its now or never, gotta stay focused and look unfazed and very determined. Like as if I'm about to mop the floor with a couple of guys who are no challenge to me. Great! I'm about to get jacked up by these three guys in front of Kaylee and then they'll get her too, cause she's not even trying to escape.

* * *

**O.K. there wasn't much justice league or even Superman in this chapter but that'll come once things get really moving. Please send me reviews so I know how you guys think.**


	2. A Need Met

**The Sun's Son**

**I do not own Superman, Batman, Supergirl or any of the other characters of the DC comics. Only James.**

**'Thoughts'**

**"Speech"**

_The three figures stood around the object of their attention._

_"It is done?" the voice was deep and filled with the malice towards all things living, the figure was dark and shrouded in shadow._

_"Yes it is done brothers." the tallest and radiating command and wisdom greater than the other two, the air itself seemed to crackle around him._

_"But when will it be ready to use?" with a voice that seemed to bubble up from the deepest depths, his voice seemed faint but with the power a hurricane beneath it. A hurricane ready to be unleashed on the slightest whim._

_"Soon brothers, soon. We must give it time, we must test it first and see if it is up to the challenge." The tallest said._

_"Can there be any doubt? It was done by our three hands. That alone should ensure its ability and success." the third said, rage building, barely held a bay._

_"Calm yourself brother. The goal is much too great to leave to chance. We have time, we can be patient and see." The tallest one replied. He was obviously was the one that held the other two in check. _

_As the two continued to talk about the object of their attention, the third remained silent. Contemplating. With eyes that seemed to reflect the countless souls of despair and loss the shadowy figure spoke. "Zeus, do you intend to bring this matter up before the council? Or does this remain between the three of us?"_

_"Hades. Brother." with a loud sigh," This is a matter concerning all of Olympus, not just us three." The King of the Gods looked suddenly very tired._

_Poseidon jumps in with urgency, "But what if they disagree, say no, then all of our work will be for naught!"_

_"Worry not. For though they will have their say, ultimately the decision will be ours for it concerns us the most. We need only get enough of them to agree to justify our actions." Zeus informed his brothers._

_"We do not need to justify ourselves to them! We are The Three! We rule over all that is, our words are absolute!" The Lord of the seas' temper began to climb like a coming hurricane._

_"Yes, but with this move we change everything. Nothing will be the same again, what's to prevent the younger ones from doing this in turn? With even their minor consensus, we cement their guilt into inaction later on." revealed the Lord of Olympus._

_As they two prattled on more on the details, Hades remained quiet and contemplated things on his own. Neither of his two brothers noticed the slow smile creep across his face._

_'I see things getting very interesting now….'

* * *

_

**Chapter Two: A Need Met**

So it was at this point that Kara found herself within the 'Fortress'. A construction by her once 'little' cousin Kal, a.k.a. Clark or Superman. This 'Fortress' was truly an amazing thing, it seemed to depict both Kal's Kryptonian heritage while giving recognition to his Earthly upbringing. With all the exhibits on Kryptonian culture it was truly amazing and very reminiscent of home… or at least as much as she could remember… strangely her memories seemed to have been a bit hazy.

All in all it was truly extraordinary…

And all in all Kara was truly bored…

"Come on… please? Just for a bit? It's driving me crazy staying here all locked up all the time."

"Alright. Fine, you're right, you don't get out much. I guess we can see about even getting you a place to stay outside of the Fortress. Maybe with my parents?" finally submitting to the constant pleas and the nagging voice in the back of his head saying it's the right thing to do, the Man of Steel finally bent over beaten.

"That's great! Ohhh thank you Kal. Most of my time outside has been spent battling bad guys…"

"… Not something I'm still entirely comfortable with you know." the unease very apparent in Clark's voice.

"…Now I'll have time to spend doing other exciting things, like shopping and exploring the different places Earth has to offer!" clearly too busy imagining the possibilities before her, Kara was oblivious to the discomfort her listings were having on her cousin.

'Shopping?…well Kara's definitely picked up that past time fairly easily. Maybe too easy for my liking… ohh no I think she might need to pick up a job for her secret identity we'll have to create for her to help her merge into society, as well has fuel her new love for shopping.'

"Ohh I can't wait!" squealed Kara.

And thus began Kara's journey of both window and actual shopping from all over the continent…

…and the bending it would cause on the 'wallet of steel' …

* * *

The Midwest. Somewhere in the direction of Minnesota, possibly as far as into Canada. Not in his jurisdiction, but that's never stopped him before. The search probes' reading back that Travis was getting closer to the general area in which the 'target' was last read at being. He never liked going into a job not knowing what his 'catch' was capable of, some others found it exciting but Travis just found it made things more difficult and dangerous. Travis was no patriot by any stretch of the word and he was not willing to die in service to his country, he just enjoyed the freedom of freely beating things to a pulp with almost no possible government repercussions. All he knew was the 'target' was fast, pretty fast actually, but not so fast as to be real difficult, so long as it didn't follow too much more surprises. If not… 

'Looks like I'm in for some fun, hahaha.'

* * *

'It couldn't be real. None of it. It's just too much. These things just don't happen.' Kaylee's mind racing while oblivous to what was happening in front of her. 

"Kaylee? Go now! I don't want you to see what happens here" James' desperation apparent, but still unable to reach the now frozen Kalyee.

"Doesn't look like she can hear you buddy, heh heh heh." one of the burglars.

'Fine then. It's now or never.'

"Well lets get this over with shall we?" surprised by how authentic his casual nonchalance appeared, and quite at odds with his earlier apprehension, James decided to move while his sudden change in attitude confused and unbalanced the burglars.

Caught by surprise, the three burglars didn't notice James as he stalked up, practically on top of them until it was almost too late.

BAM and the tallest burglar crumpled to the ground from a backhand to the temple. The second burglar had just enough time to flinch back, saving his nose from a fist and settling for only a grazing of the right cheek, as he fell backward. The third swung desperately at James, missing him completely. His gun was clearly forgotten in the confusion and rush, behind his back.

'Wow? That was quick and easy.' Surprised by his apparent victory, James was unaware of the tallest guy getting back up ready to spring on him.

His only warning was the crunching of the packed snow on the ground. Twisting to get out of the way, James slipped in the snow and fell with the tall man also falling on top of him.

"Quick! Get up and grab him now.!" as all three get up and commence wrestling James to the ground Kaylee came back to her senses.

"James!" panic driving Kaylee's plea into a shrill shriek.

With a dry prickling heat swelling through his body accompanied with an energy James attributed to the adrenalin flooding his system, James forced the three burglars off his person with one strong heave.

As all four men got up the one burglar with the gun remembered what he was packing and brought the gun to bear upon James. Entirely pulled by reflexes James drove forward to the gun, while ducking and swooping to his left and nailed the burglar in the nose with and upward open palm followed by a chop to the left side of the neck and ended with right to the gut and a shove to the ground.

"You better do a lot better than that if you want to get anywhere with me." James replied coldly. Still pumped by the adrenaline rush James forgot about the gun, unfortunately the tall burglar was a bit smarter and quicker for though.

"Well you're fast I'll give you that, but are you fast enough to stop a bullet heading to your friend? I doubt it." confidence and a lot of smug amusement dripping from his words, the tall burglar leveled the gun to point at Kaylee.

Finally at a lost for what to do, James could only look like a deer caught in the headlights, instincts and reflexes weren't giving him any clue on what to do now, unless they were saying to not do anything now.

Finally liking where things stood and where they appeared to be going, the tall burglar decided now was the perfect time to let his frustration on how such a simple burglary became so difficult out on the cause of the whole mess. James.

"Lets beat this punk into a bloody pulp."

"Yah! I think the puke broke my nose! I wanna make him bleed bad now"

"He's caused us too much grief, so I say we make him and his little girl pay"

So the two unarmed burglars commenced to beat down James while the gun remained aimed at Kaylee.

'Damn this kid is solid. He must work out a lot.'

'What? Are these guys like little kids? I'm barely feeling this'

"Is that all you guys got? Are you that tired already that you can't hit any harder than my little nephews? O.K. I'm done with these games." 'Damn they aren't hurting me even, but it sure is getting annoying, just like a four year old trying to pound into me… make that two four-year olds.' Already tired of the rouse James decides to try and surprise them again.

'Damn this guy's weird. Could he be one of those super powered types. Awww crap I bet he is… so he's prolly playing with us which means we better get out of he…'

BAM! BAM!

Both burglars drop and James rushes to place himself between Kaylee and the gunner while also closing the distance between himself and the gunner.

BANG!

The gunner shoots off of reflex and the bullet slams into James's right shoulder, causing him to jerk with the impact halfway spinning him around.

As James slowly spins back to face the gunner, his face looks grim, "Ohhh now you've done it. You just pissed me off! Time for a world of hurt." looking completely unaffected by a near point blank shot.

Seeing the hole in the jumper top and the only effect a point blank gunshot seemed to have was to annoy said individual, the burglar came to the conclusion that he was indeed facing a superhuman and was indeed facing a world of hurt.

In a few rapid movements all three burglars were out cold and James was already starting on restraining them with there own sweaters.

"Oh my god you were just shot! Are you alright?" not really sure if she would like either answer or what they could mean.

Turning around slowly with a large grin, "Sure of course I'm fine, It's all over isn't it?" the grin was obviously forced even from where she stood.

It was then that she noticed the sweat. James was sweating profusely and was already damp, It was easily too cold to be sweating like that. That's when she noticed the blood on the snow and on the hand he used to rub the shoulder he was supposedly shot at.

"Ohh My God! You were shot and you're bleeding!

At this point things began to get blurry and dark for James… "What are you talking about I'm fine. Just alittle sore is all." at which point James fell to the snow as he blacked out.

The last words he could remember hearing were, " James! Are you O.K.? …"

* * *

**Sorry things were a bit shorter on this one but it was the best spot to cut off at, and I was running out of time and wanted to add as quickly as I could.**

**So please send me some reviews and soon things will be picking up a bit. I have a fight scene coming up in about two chapters so get ready.**


	3. Questions

**The Sun's Son**

**I do not own Superman, Batman, Supergirl or any of the other characters of the DC comics. Only James.**

'Thoughts'

"Speech"

* * *

_The woman was running through the forest. Running with an urgency that spoke of a chase and her the one being chased. _

_Her hunters were relentless, chasing her for centuries. She could never escape for long; a few months, a few years but never more than a decade. This rest lasted only for 3 years._

_During that time she found a man, a good and kind man, so unlike any of the previous violent men she called lovers. In that time she found peace and happiness, she hoped she could finally have settled down and that things would've lasted. They never do._

_As much as it pained her to leave without so much as a goodbye, her stay had had a purpose. She found a man she could leave her child with, a man she could trust would raise the child right and free from the watchful eyes of her pursuers. The man thought the child theirs; he didn't know she had been holding the child for so long, waiting for the right time to 'birth' him. Luckily the child should grow up looking enough like the locals as to pass for them with no comment._

_She did not know if she could keep running forever, or even if she would see her child again, but she hoped that her child would be free to grow up free and happy with a bright and special future ahead. That was all any mother really wanted for her child._

_So she ran, ran from the life she started and the life she was leaving behind._

'_Goodbye my little Sol, mother loves you. May your destiny shine like the Sun', and with that the Rhea disappeared into the night._

* * *

**Chapter Three: Questions**

The Mall of America.

Possibly the greatest achievement in Human History. The crowning glory that human civilization has to offer. The number of stores seemed limitless. If there was an afterlife this is where Kara wanted to end up, if there was one reason for which to spare humanity from annihilation, The Mall of America was it.

Since her discovery, Kara has made routine trips to the Mall to buy anything and everything that ever came up. From new cloths to new personal furniture for first the Fortress then later the Kents Farm.

The northern portion of the US during winter was reminiscent of Krypton, or at least the vague details she could remember. It seemed to put her at ease when she ventured to this area. She like this area and planned on taking more time to begin exploring 'the north', she was told that it held a quiet and majestic beauty that changed much over the course of a year.

Yes, she would explore.

* * *

The first thing James noticed as he finally started coming to was the screaming and sobbing of a females voice, the second thing he began to notice was the sounds of sirens.

"JAMES! WAKE UP!" screeched Kaylee between sobs and gasps.

Groaning and feeling sore James started climbing to his feet. The world around him seemed to spin like some kind of movie simulated acid trip.

Kaylee seemed relieved as James got up. "OHH MY GAWD! I thought you were going to die there".

"How long was I out?" groaned James as he absent mindedly started rubbing his shoulder.

"You were out for like five minutes. You wouldn't move and you were barely breathing, I thought you were dying! You didn't even respond when I shook you or yelled at you!" After seemingly regaining control of herself, Kaylee's already red eyes started watering again with renewed fury as she began to shake with sobs. Kaylee threw herself at James and buried her face into his chest and sobbed fitfully. James arms instinctively wrapped around Kaylee as he started making reassuring sounds.

With everything settling down James finally noticed the sirens. Police sirens! Suddenly the situation dawned on James, what was he doing here at Kaylee's house after she called 911, when he should still be down south. There was no explanation for what he was doing here.

Pulling Kaylee away from him and taking her shoulders firmly in his hands, James locked Kaylee's eyes with his own.

"Kaylee. Whatever happens, I was NEVER here. Got it? No one can know about me, or what I did here. You understand right?" Kaylee nodded furiously while her eyes looked at him questioningly and concerned.

"OK good. Look Kaylee, just tell the cops that someone you didn't recognize came by and took care of these creeps. If they say anything different, no one will believe them. If you have to, insinuated that it might have been some minor superhero."

Feeling very confused but trusting James, Kaylee just nodded furiously.

With the flashing lights of the Police cars getting near both turned to watch the approaching cop cars. When Kaylee turned around to ask James a question, he was nowhere to be seen, not even a trace.

Kaylee's mind was racing; how had James been there when he should have been on the other side of the country, how had he survived that shot. She was sure she had seen some blood, but she didn't find a bullet hole, only the ugliest bruise and a half-healed cut.

James was racing back down to his home duty station, he stopped off at his home to grab some spare cloths and some better shoes for running in, as well as a backpack to carry all his stuff in. It was mostly night on his way back and he noticed that it was taking far longer to get back then it was to leave, no matter how hard he pushed himself, he just couldn't match the speed he had from earlier. He was still cruising though, he was a blur down the freeways and people barely noticed him.

He had super powers.

Not just one power… but several. Super speed was always a power he thought would be awesome to have, and so far it seemed that it would be. He obviously had some kind of super strength too. Didn't look like he would be benching a Buick, but he was feeling stronger than a normal person should probably be. Did he have a fast healing ability? Or was it some minor level of durability/invulnerability? He knew he had gotten shot, he remembered it hurt only a little bit. The bullet obviously bloodied him at first, but already there was hardly any sign that he had been hurt. He wasn't too keen on testing out which super power it was, or how great the power in question was. He couldn't bring himself to trying to cut himself or finding some other method of self-inflicted injury to see if he was merely resistant to damage or he healed fast from it.

Now he had to figure out what he was going to do with his power, if he was going to do anything with it at all. What kid growing up didn't want superpowers and be a superhero? Being a full-time superhero was going to be impossible though, there were no big crimes or even super crimes in his remote area. His hours working each day were also pretty hefty; he couldn't just leave all willy-nilly at every crime he found out about.

How would he even find out about crimes? Was he just going to zoom around the city randomly until he saw some flashing lights and follow along?

The more he thought about it, the less cool and more difficult even convincing himself being a superhero would be. Maybe he would just do things when the opportunity presented itse-…

WHAAMMMM!

In his deep thoughts James forgot he was zooming down the freeway at super speed on foot, and ran face first into the back of a semi. The impact left James dazed and momentarily halted.

Momentary being until the car behind the semi hit him.

James was flung over the windshield and into the ditch on the side of the road. Hurting like after a full day of football practice, James climbed to his feet as he watched the car that hit him continue speeding off in the distance.

"Wow, buddy. Didn't even stop to see what you hit?"

James decided to sit there and take a breather. After some time James realized the pain hadn't gotten too much better and he decided it was time to push through it and get back to base and sleep it off.

It took James the rest of the night to get back, though quite fast, was considerably slower than his trip home which only took almost an hour.

* * *

Travis was furious. His target had managed to elude him and for some reason had become quite difficult to track with the satellites and other tracking devices. The 'target' was already heading to the southeast somewhere. Travis had been denied an opportunity to kill a possibly exciting prey. Well, he would have his chance eventually. Until then, it was time to head back with this failure hanging over his head. Nothing was learned about the target, they didn't get as much as a visual.

"You _WILL_ be mine. I WILL find you…"

* * *

James was finally 'officially' back home. As usual the travel experience was as difficult as it could be. Without fail every time either his luggage would get lost or there would be a delayed flight for various reasons. Not once had he had a smooth uneventful trip.

"That's it, I'm done with flying. From now on I'm just going to mail my luggage home and just run back and forth."

As James began to settle in, his mind drifted to thoughts of Kaylee. Was she ok? What did she say to the police? But most of all James wondered. What do I tell her?

* * *

**OK well its good to be back after like three or four years. This chapter was actually finished at the same time I went on hiatus so I was never really able to upload it before-hand. Sadly all my notes and works I had saved up for all my projects were lost when I transfered all my documents to an external hard drive I just bought, which broke an hour after I moved all my music, pictures and stories. I was pretty frustrated by this and I kind of gave up, but I constantly found myself thinking back on my stories and where I was going with them and now that i have time to dedicate to writing again I've decided to pick up where i left off. **


End file.
